I'm Barry's wife, a great thing to be! I have worked as his editor and try to make sure that his material is comprehensible to more than experienced physicists. On this page you will find links to parts of our home life. We are involved with giving geriatric horses a home in their last years. In return, they give us great compost for the vegetables and other plants we grow. They also keep the back half acre 'mowed.' We figure it's a fair deal.

Other than that, this page is for some 'mini-blogs," just some things that occur to me occasionally.

You may see me referred to as "Penny." That is my nickname -- since I was about 3 years old. Why? Long story, but the essence of it is: my hair is copper-colored!

On Guinea Pigs: Charlie lived for almost seven years. The vet said he never read the book on rodents, for he wasn't supposed to live that long. Figure six years for a good old guinea pig. That means, at the rate of 50 cage cleanings a year, 300 cage cleanings for the little things for their lifetimes. And we want our kids to do that? How many adults are willing? In addition, the tiny little cages we get for them are not nearly enough room. We ended up buying a wire dog crate for Charlie, which he loved. The bottom was a layer of newspapers and straw on top of them. Plenty of room and some really cool hiding places we put in there for him. He got regular guinea pig food along with veggies and fruits daily. He loved bell peppers, apples, grapes, carrots and hay from the barn. We trimmed his nails and when he got old, the vet also trimmed his teeth. Until then, however, we gave him twigs and such from one of our apple trees to chew on, with which kept his own teeth trimmed.

In other words, the little guy, as cute as he was, was work. Consistent, faithful work. Please remember that when your child asks for a dog and you decide a guinea pig will be easier!

Love and Servanthood: If you have chosen to love something -- chosen to commit to it or him or her -- that means you have become its (or his or her) servant. You work to accomplish the best for that to which you have committed, regardless of feelings from one moment to another. I realized that mucking out the horse stalls. We take care of Chris, our profoundly retarded son; we take care of the animals; we help our friends; we are there for our children and grandchildren. Love isn't a feeling, it's a choice to commit: God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son. And Jesus came as a servant.

The idea of 'falling into' or 'out of' love is silly. You don't fall into your choices. You don't fall out of them. In loving, we choose who our masters will be. Jesus said if we love Him, we will obey Him. It's a matter of choice: will He be my Master or will something or someone else? We are responsible for that choice, just as we are responsible for the other choices we make in our lives.

What, or who, we choose to love, is a choice. Love is not a feeling -- it just comes with a lot of them attached.

February 29, 2012 -- it's my birthday today. Sixteen birthdays, 64 years. Not too many people get to be 'sweet sixteen' twice in a lifetime! But that's not what I'm here for. It's snowing out. We don't get snow very often here on the valley floor, and it's not sticking, but it sure is pretty coming down. When it clears, the mountains around us will be beautiful.

And it reminded me of something I've thought about a number of times before. When snow covers everything, it is all so beautiful. But the 'everything' is still there, underneath. Our lives are a lot like that, aren't they? We try to cover up our flaws and present a lovely exterior to the world. But what we are underneath is still there, and when the heat in our lives has been turned up, the snow melts and who we really are is there for all to see.

Best to keep the yard clean underneath the snow, eh?

Or take it a step further. Think of our bodies like the snow. They will disappear. Then, who we are underneath keeps on going. There will come a time when all covers are off. And the only way I know to keep beautiful underneath is if a person is born again in Christ and the Holy Spirit is quietly doing that business of transforming the person underneath. Then, when the heat is turned up in this life, or when the body is gone from us, who we are underneath will be even more beautiful than any cover we could have used or manufactured for ourselves.

April 8, 2012 -- Resurrection Sunday/Easter. Barry wasn't feeling good last night so he went to bed early. As a result, I did something I haven't done for years: spent a couple of hours in discussion on the net. I was primarily involved in a discussion about abortion, with some side trails regarding creation and then a recent creation. It is amazing what mental manipulations people will go to in order to deny God exists.

Think about it: we have one of two choices (please let me know if you are aware of another one!) -- either matter is eternal and self-organized to the point where sentient beings invented the idea of a deity, or, on the other hand, God is real and eternal and invented matter. I don't think there are any other options.

In his 1994 edition of the book The 2nd Law; Energy, Chaos, and Form (Scientific American Library), P.W. Atkins states the following: The natural tendency of energy to disperse -- that is, to spread through space, to spread the particles that are storing it, and to lose the coherence with which the particles are storing it -- establishes the direction of natural events...even if energy were to accumulate, there is little likelihood that it would do so coherently. Natural processes are those that accompany the dispersal of energy....As energy collapses into chaos, the events of the world move forward. (pp 62,63) Atkins spends the first half of the book describing the tendency of matter/energy toward dispersal and chaos. He then spends the second half of the book trying to work around that so that evolution can be upheld.

And this seems typical of many. Despite what they can see, what they know is true in their own lives, they prefer the lie.

But for those who prefer the truth, and follow it, they are led to Christ. And this particular day of the year we celebrate the triumph of truth over the lie, the triumph of life over death, and the triumph of our Lord's righteousness over sin. God bless you all -- He is risen, indeed.